came the assurance that I was wrong when I set up a tombstone with a name
upon it in a Quaker graveyard. I received a sarcastic letter from a lady
on the borders of Sussex and Surrey upon this point, and I immediately
sent her a first-class railway ticket to enable her to visit the Quaker
churchyard at Croydon, in Surrey, where dead and gone Quakers have
tombstones by the score, and inscriptions on them also. It is a good
thing to be accurate; it is desperately essential in a novel. The
average reader, in his triumph at discovering some slight error of
detail, would consign a masterpiece of imagination, knowledge of life
and character to the rubbish-heap.

I believe that 'The Weavers' represents a wider outlook of life, closer
understanding of the problems which perplex society, and a clearer view
of the verities than any previous book written by me, whatever its
popularity may have been. It appealed to the British public rather more
than 'The Right of Way', and the great public of America and the Oversea
Dominions gave it a welcome which enabled it to take its place beside
'The Right of Way', the success of which was unusual.




NOTE

This book is not intended to be an historical novel, nor are its
characters meant to be identified with well-known persons connected with
the history of England or of Egypt; but all that is essential in the tale
is based upon, and drawn from, the life of both countries. Though Egypt
has greatly changed during the past generation, away from Cairo and the
commercial centres the wheels of social progress have turned but slowly,